Three Highline teachers have been awarded Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century grants. Cherie Clymer of Highline High School, Carrie Robeson of Gregory Heights Elementary, and Melissa Sokolik of New Start High School have been selected by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to receive this two-year, professional-development course designed to merge effective instructional and assessment techniques with real-world technologies. The grants are valued at $11,100 each.

"The majority of teachers need the basics of effective technology integration," said Dennis Small, OSPI Educational Technology Director. “This training starts at the beginning. The course is designed to introduce powerful, new instructional practices that can take advantage of a technology-rich learning environment, which is step one on the journey toward 21st century teaching and learning.”

The Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century grant program is federally funded through the Enhancing Education Through Technology program, a component of Title II, Part D of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (ESEA, passed in 1965, was re-authorized in 2002 by the No Child Left Behind Act.)

"Technology integration is not an end in itself," Small said. "The hardware and software are just two elements of the learning environment. The key to powerful teaching and learning is to couple the right technology with the right instructional strategy and build every learning activity around strong, standards-based curricula. That’s what the Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century grants are designed to do."

Money for the grants will come from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Awardees will be given $7,600 in 2009-10 and $3,500 in 2010-11.